1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to software drivers for devices within a computer system. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for automatically retrieving and installing software device drivers across a network.
2. Related Art
When a computer user installs a device, such as a video card, into a computer system, the installation process typically involves physically inserting the device into the computer system, and then installing appropriate driver software. This driver software is either retrieved from a driver library in the operating system or is alternatively loaded from a disk that is shipped with the device.
Providing driver software in either of these ways has disadvantages. First, the process of installing the driver software must be performed manually, typically by loading the driver software into the computer system from the disk, or by manually selecting the driver software from the driver library within the operating system. This manual installation process is time-consuming and it can present challenges for a novice computer user who is not familiar with the software installation process. In fact, the process of installing the driver software can take as long or longer than the process of physically installing the device into the computer system. Additionally, different versions of driver software may have to be provided for different operating systems and/or different computer systems. This often requires a manufacturer to ship a device with multiple versions of the driver software.
Another disadvantage is that driver software is typically out-dated by the time it is installed. The driver library in the operating system is the same age as the operating system. Hence, driver software from the driver library can potentially be many years old. Furthermore, if the device is new, a corresponding driver will not exist in the operating system""s driver library.
Even driver software shipped with a device can be out-dated. This is because the device and associated driver software can potentially sit on a store shelf or in the distribution chain for many months before being purchased. Another problem is that shipping driver software along with a device incurs additional cost. The cost of shipping the driver software can account for a significant fraction of the total cost for certain low cost devices, such as internal modems or scanners.
What is needed is a system that automatically retrieves and installs a current device driver when a corresponding device is installed in a computer system.
One embodiment of the present invention provides a method for retrieving and installing device driver software across a network. The method operates by detecting the presence of a device in a computer system for which no current driver is installed in the computer system. Upon detecting such a device, the method reads a locator specifying the location of a current driver for the device from a non-volatile memory on the device. The method uses this locator to communicate with a remote host across the network, and to retrieve a current driver for the device from the remote host. Next, this current driver is installed on the computer system.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the locator includes a universal resource locator (URL) and the network includes the Internet. In another embodiment, the locator includes a telephone number and the network includes a telephone network.
One embodiment of the present invention reboots the computer system after installing the current driver.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the process of detecting the presence of the device takes place during a boot cycle following a power up of the computer system.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the process of installing the current driver takes place following a boot cycle of the computer system.
One embodiment of the present invention uses a default driver for the device to operate the device in a restricted performance mode until the current driver is installed.
In one embodiment of the present invention, detecting the presence of the device in the computer system for which no current driver is installed includes detecting the presence of an out-of-date driver for the device in the computer system. In this embodiment, installing the current driver includes installing an updated driver for the device. In a variation on this embodiment, installing the updated driver includes creating the updated driver by applying an update to the out-of-date driver.
In one embodiment of the present invention, retrieving the current driver includes sending an identifier for the computer system to the remote host so that the remote host can return a version of the current driver that is tailored to the computer system.
One embodiment of the present invention provides a method for facilitating retrieval and installation of device driver software across a network. The method stores a driver for a device on a server, and constructs a locator specifying the location of the driver on the network. This locator is stored in non-volatile memory on the device. Next, the method uses the server to make the driver for the device accessible to requesters across the network.